Picked this up yesterday for a good price, body seems to be in excellent condition, slight dent in rear fender, and just a small area of rust through, everything else is just surface.
Yeah, was told the engine ran a few years ago. We all know how that is. I did notice the carb looks rather new and not grimed over like the rest of the engine. The plan is to right now either get the old engine running or to put a different engine in it. Plymouth parts aren't as easy to come by as ford or chevy. I plan to lower it a bit, and make a custom interior, since it's gutted anyway. Spent last night cleaning out the inside. Lots of little screws and bolts and most of the door hardware. The rest was shop vacced up. Floor pans are rusty, usable, but will probably be replaced. Spare tire well is rusted through, figured just get a trailer fender and build a new well. As for paint, right now the plan is about the same color teal, maybe a bit darker, with a satin black top. Thatll change though, it always does.
Parts are available. Check out www.P15-D24.com home page. It has an abundance of good information on all flathead MoPars. The forum people are very helpful also.
glass says 49. got the engine to turn over with compression today. (after checking oil and having oil sit in cylinders since i picked it up.) no fire though, thinking its a bad coil. 12v conversion on its way.
When you get her running take a drive north and see Kenny Baker. He knows how to chop one right!!!! 49 with a 50 grill.
Need any parts for that thing give me a shout. We got 5 49 plymouth parts cars and tons of other stuff in that era. Tank, did my buddy Garland happen to sell you a steering wheel for your car? I was kinda thinking we did.
Not sure. I did buy a really nice one a few yrs back. If so thank you. Also have a 4 door parts car if anyone needs parts.
i have a very complete 49 dodge coronet ( same car i believe) with a Nova subframe already in place. I am selling it for 1000 obo if you are interested.. swapping my frame in place of yours will save you some time and headache trying to fit a v8 in it around that damn steering column..
yup, that column and shaft are in the way to say the least, i am putting a dakota frame clip under mine to solve that issue....
only parts i may need would be trim pieces. i love the chopped look of them, but for right now, i'm just going to get it running and drive it. where does kenny baker live for future reference though? so far I have about $610 in the car. After a few misc bolts and such.
A few years back when I did my 50 Plymouth, all the engine parts could be bought new at the Caterpillar dealers.
You can sill pick up quite a few of the mechanicals at Napa autoparts stores. Those engines were used in industrial applications up until the 70's I believe. I've bought just about everything for mine from Napa, including my complete gasket set...and it's all ALOT cheaper then Kanter. To the OP, those floor pans will have to go. I assume your carpet is gone, so you didn't get a chance to see the culprit; horsehair. They came from the factory with a layer of the stuff under the carpet for insulation and sound deadener. It worked damn good, but it also held ANY moisture directly onto the floor pans. I've never seen one that didn't have rotted out floors and rockers. The 12v conversion is fairly simple, but you'll have to fab up a bracket for your alternator. I went GM one wire myself, but will probably trash it when I get around to my overhaul. Good Luck, and nice score.
Kenny Baker is located in Elmer Missouri, just south of kirksville of 63. He is "choprods" on here. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=66026&showall=1 above is the link to my chop.
Your chop looks good. I may have to get ahold of him when I get some extra cash. I. Used to have an uncle that was into cars that lived in bevier which isn't too far from Elmer As for progress. None really. New plugs and points and condenser and coil but still no spark. Distributor cap will be changed out hopefully next weekend and ill make some new plug wires. If nothing after all that, which is everything ignition related, I don't know what ill do.
do you have a good power line to the coil ??? check to make sure it is constant power while cranking ... maybe temporary install a line from battery to hot side of coil ... don't forget to put a toggle switch in the line or else you will burn out the coil ,, and won't be able to shut the thing off once you start it ...
yeah, made wire with an alligator clip (for quick disconnect from battery) running from the coil to the battery. the cars positive ground, and the coil is getting power. the old points were worn out, so i replaced them, along with the condenser (with correct oem parts), I replaced the coil with a new 6v coil also, new 6v battery. the only thing i can think of is that it could be is the dist or the plug wires. both should be replaced anyway because i doubt they have been in since the car was new. while some people may say "if it works, its good" i like to think of things like replacing that stuff as preventive maintenance, fix it before it breaks, not when. I may be losing a bit of amperage because of the alligator clip, but nothing to where I would think it would keep it from sparking. i'll see what a new dist cap does, they're not too expensive luckily, and so far i've been able to get everything at the car parts store.
just a thought ,,,,, hot wire ,,, runs from battery to points ,, thru points to coil ,,, coil to rotor ,, then on to plug wires .... with key on ,, cap off ,, you should be able to see spark across points .. remove coil wire at dist. cap,,, hold wire (with pliers that have plastic handles) about 1/8" above metal part of engine ,, crank it over ,, should see sparking ... if all that works ,,,, make sure that rotor and cap aren't rusted ,, clean .... reinstall cap & rotor ,,,, than remove 1 wire ,,, install a plug into wire and ground it to block ... crank over engine ,,, should see sparking .... hopefully it all works ...then all you need is fuel delivery ... but that's another can of worms .... points ,,, can be cleaned by inserting a hunk of fine sand paper (or striker off a book of matches) with points closed ,, rub back and forth a few times ,, flip it over and repeat .. set them using matchbook ,, with points set on hi point of lobe ( or .035 feeler gauge)
dont buy your points from napa. all the parts we purchased through napa for our '50 were literally JUNK. the points lasted about 30 feet up the road and we lost spark and never got it back. For great Points for the car buy Blue Streak points. theyre heavy duty and top quality. worth it. We had the exact same issues as you. Check all your wires running through that system. Dont buy the tractor supply coils; buy a good one. Get a new dist. cap. Makes a world of a difference. Our plymouth ran great at first and then slowly started burning up coils, overheating them, dying at stoplights and not restarting, etc. We were losing spark and it all boiled down to the ignition system, dist cap, points, wiring, etc. Make sure your dwell is what it is supposed to be. you can find it by typing 1949 plymouth dwell setting into google. do your research and dial everything in properly and it'll make the car run a lot better. ours was tweeked off and we made sure we dialed it all in and it runs great. ever consider buying an electrical ignition system for it? it will eliminate the points system and make it a heck of a lot more reliable. we made that purchase yesterday
check out my '50 plym build thread for more suggestions from fellow hambers on what culd be wrong and how to go about it
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